Sigma was the first out of the infirmary after Alice, pausing only to allow the door time to automatically open before him, but Phi wasn't far behind. She broke into a ferocious sprint, only to be brought up short when she caught up with Sigma. He was standing frozen at the intersection between the exit to the infirmary and the corridor that connected all the upper floor rooms; both doorways were closed, blocking sight in both directions.

"Sigma! Which way did Alice go?!" Phi asked forcefully.

"Agh! I don't know which way she went," Sigma replied.

"You don't know! What's the point of those wild intuitions you're having if they don't let you know important things like this?"

"Don't ask me," Sigma said, shaking his head, "It's not like I'm trying to have these visions, or whatever they are."

Phi sighed, "Well, maybe you should try, then."

As she said that, the rest of the players emerged from the infirmary, Dio at the head. "You lost her?!" Dio blurted out as he saw them standing there. The other players, seeing Phi and Sigma standing still, also slowed down; all their momentum had been squandered.

Phi took charge. "Let's split up and look. Quickly! She can't have gotten too far." Phi scratched her chin, trying to think of the best strategy should one of the players find Alice. "Look… if you find her, it's best not to shout or anything. Just… do your best not to provoke her. Understood?"


They did. Sigma darted off to the left, so Phi headed right. That would only take her to the crew quarters, but it still seemed to be a plausible way for Alice to have gone. She had explored the crew quarters first, so she might instinctively return there. Something told Phi that, if Alice was going to do anything irrevocable, the crew quarters would be where she would do it.

Phi burst into the crew quarters at full pace. Each of the four cabins had its door closed, so Phi had to use precious seconds turning each handwheel.

Alice wasn't in cabin four.
She wasn't in cabin two.
Or cabin three.
Or one.

Phi swore under her breath. Her guess had been completely wrong. There wasn't any time to waste. Phi raced out of the crew quarters and towards the warehouse.

There wasn't any sign of Alice in the warehouse, either. Phi checked, just be certain; she even peeked inside the AB Room Dio had opened. Alice wasn't there. Phi moved on, sprinting through the magenta door.

Alice wasn't in the lounge either. From the strewn cushions and clutter, it was clear someone else had already searched there already. As her hope started to drain away, Phi ran to the elevator. Alice had to be on the lower floor.


Once the elevator had taken Phi to the lower floor she darted straight forward through the blue door, letting her adrenaline carry her along. As she reached a corner in the corridor, a door automatically opened in front of her where she hadn't expected it. Phi vaguely remembered that the map had marked it as a shortcut allowing the teams that had gone through the green and blue Chromatic Doors back towards the elevator. There was no reason why Phi couldn't take that shortcut the other way.

Phi charged down the shortcut and found herself in another warehouse. This warehouse looked similar to the warehouse on the upper floor, but there were several key differences that Phi took in at a moment's glance.

This warehouse had no AB Rooms. Where the AB Rooms had been on the upper floor, there were three doors that glowed from within with subtle white light: most likely, they were Chromatic Doors.

Where the Number Nine Door had been on the upper floor, there was a similarly shaped door that was different in every other regard: blank instead of labelled, unadorned instead of having an attached lever, rusted into obscurity instead of menacingly polished.

Finally, on the wall to Phi's left was some blood-red graffiti, inscribed in the same style as the graffiti upstairs. It was much longer, and Phi didn't have time to read it.

The warehouse also had one key similarity to the warehouse upstairs.

Alice wasn't there.

Apart from the Chromatic Doors and the shortcut Phi had entered by, there were two other doors out of the warehouse, on the left beside the graffiti. Phi ran towards them. Only one of them opened, so Phi continued on through it.


As Phi sprinted down yet another winding corridor, she began to feel her breath catching in her throat. She had been running at her limit for so many minutes, looking for Alice. If Phi hadn't found her… that had to mean one of the others had found her. But Phi couldn't stop running.

As Phi rounded the corner, she had to sidestep around Sigma emerging from a door on her right. When she had her balance again, Phi turned and gazed into his eyes. Sigma shook his head. Phi shook her head.

"There's one more room we can check," Sigma stated, his voice trembling, "The gardens. I think that's where Tenmyouji, Dio and Clover went. It's this way; come on!"

Sigma and Phi dashed the last metre of the corridor until they reached an open door on their left. They squeezed through into the brightly lit garden. Once inside, Phi rapidly scanned the area, looking for Alice.

She couldn't have gotten far in here. The 'sky' above the garden was, in fact, a ceiling, with the thin gaps between them betraying the hexagonal panels that made it up; where the sky descended it became a solid wall, keeping them inside.

Phi ignored the details of the plants in front of her; they mattered only as places where Alice could be concealed. Phi's eyes followed the stream that flowed under and around the wooden walkway they were standing on until it drained into a pond in the far corner. No sign of Alice along it either.

As Phi took in all the details of the B. garden, she felt her skin crawl. Something was not quite right about this place. It was trying too hard to look like a natural, real garden; it was a room that couldn't be trusted. Phi's unease compounded with her fears for Alice until…

"Phi," Sigma interrupted Phi's thoughts, "Look left."

Phi turned. There, where Sigma was pointing, she saw a cliff face made of stacked boulders, which cast shadows on everything before it. Phi stared into the deepest part of the shadows.

There, framed by the cliff face, Alice stood.

There, framed by the cliff face, Alice fell.

Blood poured from the wound in Alice's heart. As the scalpel fell from Alice's hand, it was clear that she was already dead. There was nothing Sigma or Phi could do.

Phi collapsed, slipping off the wooden walkway into the stream that flowed below it. Alice's death was her fault. She hadn't been quick enough, hadn't been smart enough, hadn't been right enough. Hell, Phi was the one who had betrayed Alice in the first AB round; who knew if that was what triggered Alice's descent into despair?

As the water washed Alice's blood over Phi's legs, rivulets of red staining the stream down to every last drop, Phi choked on her own guilt. She had failed.

Game Over…


This fanfic has branching storylines. To keep track of the various storylines, a link to the Flow Diagram is provided in my Author Profile.

This sort of 'Game Over...' should be familiar. Just as in VLR, we had to reach this bad end so that Phi would know where Alice went; this is the Plot Lock at the end of chapter 52: Plot Lock 11: Deja Vu. And, just like in the game, the lock unlocks automatically. This gives us a choice between two places to proceed:
1) Go back to the end of chapter 52 and break through
Plot Lock 11: Deja Vu.
2) Go back to the yellow door routes (chapter 45) and choose to go with Quark through the blue door.
I'll put up a poll on my profile and see you all next time!